Hand rearing & trafficking of baby parrots

The origin of the large-scale breeding of parrots and parakeets lies in America. In 1992 the U.S. passed a law which completely banned the import of birds caught in the wild.
This meant that large numbers of people started breeding parrots, for now the market was completely dependent on parrots and parakeets bred in captivity.
In Florida and California, tens of thousands of breeders concentrated on the professional and commercial breeding of these birds.

Hand rearing was necessary
Decades ago the hand-rearing of baby parrots and parakeets was often necessary because the parents did not care for their own offspring.
It was also not unusual that the parents damaged the young birds by biting off legs or wings plucking their feathers.
Out of necessity, the young birds were seperated from the parents and hand reared.
Because of this problem high quality food has been developed especially designed for hand-rearing,
and knowledge and experience in rearing young parrots and parakeets has risen to a high level.
Big differences between the different species became apparent.
Some species such as the Palm Cockatoo required a different composition in diet.
In the early years young palm cockatoos at the age of three months where still the same size as young that where three weeks old.
Gradually it has become possible to hand rear virtually all types young birds.
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Into the incubator
Another reason for hand-rearing was that parents did not want to incubate the eggs or damaged them.
The eggs were therefore placed into an incubator and hatched after which the young birds where hand-reared from the first day.
The question of why the parents of the eggs would not hatch them and why the parents did not care for their offspring was pushed into
the background because "the problem" was solved after all. High quality hand-rearing feeds and increased knowledge and experience allowed
the young birds to be raised without the help of their parents.
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Deserved negative publicity
It is to be expected that there will be negative publicity about the trafficking of baby parrots.
If criticism is raised about the trafficking of baby parrots by people who are not bird hobbyists,
while bird unions and associations have not yet made a clear statement on this subject, the credibility of bird hobbyists will be up for discussion
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Improper management; stress, bad diet and insecurity
The real problem was and still is that the parents have got a good reason for not hatching the eggs or raising the young.
The main cause of the problem is that mistakes were made in management.
There is insufficient consideration for the requirements that birds have regarding food, housing, care and natural behaviour.
This causes problems for the bird's health and wellbeing which causes problems for the breeding condition, and thus the breeding results.
Insufficient breeding condition causes a lack in quality of the eggs and as such a lack in health and vitality of the young.
In nature parents only feed and raise their young if they are in good condition. The quality of the diet plays an important role.
By improving the quality of food, the breeding results improve because the hen can lay more and better eggs.
Another important factor in the breeding results, is that breeding birds show territorial behaviour during the breeding season and are as such more uncertain.
This insecurity and stress is an important negative factor regarding eggs not being hatched, the young not being fed or even killed.
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Housing requirements ignored
There has also been an insufficient consideration of the housing requirements.
Birds need outside aviaries and require privacy during the breeding period.
Aviaries with partitions of (dual) mesh do not consider the natural behaviour of most species of parrots and parakeets.
Birds that live in nature, exhibit strong territorial behaviour at the sight of conspecifics near their nesting grounds.
If in such circumstances birds can reach each other, it may even lead to a bloodbath. In nature, this never happens, because birds respect each other's territory.
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Proper conditions make hand-rearing unnecessary!
Climatic conditions also play an important role in the breeding results. Improvements in nutrition, housing and care have made the need for hand-rearing redundant.
By taking the eggs and/or young away from the parents, many breeding pairs were found laying eggs again after a short period of time.
For breeders, this was a reason to hand-rear the young, since it increases the number birds bred.
There are breeders who take the first round of eggs or young from their parents and then leave the second round of eggs/young for the parents to raise.
A clear indication that hand-rearing is an obsolete practice, which is now done only for commercial motives.

The consequence of the above is that the hen produces more eggs within a short period of time than under natural conditions.
This affects the condition of the hen and the quality of the eggs and thus the quality of the young birds.
If multiple rounds are reared, there is generally a marked decline in the final weight and stature of the young birds.
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Increase in infectious diseases
Another negative consequence is an increased susceptibility to infectious diseases.
We know that problems caused by the polyomavirus are more prevalent in young hand raised birds, compared to naturally bred young.
For budgerigars, we know that the disease usually only causes problems if more than one round is grown.
Creation of large age differences within a group of young birds makes these birds more vulnerable to infectious diseases.
The example of budgies illustrates that when only one round of young is bred they grow up in one age group and the troubles caused by the virus disappear.
When more rounds are bred the young weaken and because of the large age differences between the young in the population the virus will flourish.
Besides age differences being a problem, it should be noted that the overall condition of the breeding hens, by the repeated laying of eggs declines.
In practice we see that these hens often die at a way too young age.
The quality of eggs deteriorates, making the young more vulnerable and the “vitality and quality" of the birds drops.
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Dire consequences for hand reared parrot
When birds are hand raised, it is - in comparison with natural breeding - common for the hens to lay eggs at the bottom of the cage or aviary, rather than in a nesting box.
Studies in Venezuela amazons showed that hand-reared birds prefer social contact with humans over contact with conspecifics.
Hand reared parrots have a stronger tendency to take over the human language, compared to naturally bred young.
Talking in this situation is mainly used as verbal communication to manipulate and elicit a response.
An undesirable effect of hand rearing is that the birds are more uncertain when confronted with new situations, toys, etc.
There is strong evidence that if young are taken away from the mother at a young age, behavioural and adjustment problems will result due to a developmental disorder in the brains.
It is not for nothing that the Dutch Health and Welfare Act states that puppies and kittens may not be removed from the mother within their first 7 weeks.
The same applies to the ban on taking infant monkeys away from the mother. It is a sad fact that no law forbids taking away young parrots from their parents.
Within the Clinic for Birds we can see that “wild-caught birds” that were raised by parents, have fewer behavioural problems than bred birds that are hand reared.
The wild-caught birds seem to be able to adapt more easily to new, strange and even hostile conditions. Binnen de Kliniek voor Vogels zien we dan ook dat 'wildvang vogels' die door de ouders zijn grootgebracht, minder gedragsproblemen hebben dan de gekweekte vogels die met de hand zijn grootgebracht. De wildvang vogels blijken in staat om zich veel beter aan te passen aan voor hen nieuwe, vreemde en zelfs vogelonvriendelijke omstandigheden.
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Hand Rearing, legitimate cruelty to birds
It is entirely inappropriate that the hand-rearing is legitimized on the grounds that it is beneficial for the birds, since the young birds will be more tame and
therefore better suited as a companion bird. The opposite is true.
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Trafficking in baby parrots
Having baby parrots as a companion bird is a development of recent years. Sadly this development is not positive.
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Trade creates spread of infectious diseases
Baby birds that still have to be hand reared are being sold to individuals.
Breeders also sell baby parrots to buyers who collect birds in one centralized spot for subsequent hand-rearing and selling.
The lastly named form of trade is especially beneficial to the spread of infectious diseases.
In particular, the distribution of Psittacine beak and feather disease, polyomavirus, proventricular dilatation disease and psittacosis virus have greatly increased
due to the trade in baby parrots. Adult breeding birds do not always show symptoms of the disease, while the young can already be infected inside the egg.
These infected young can then serve as a source of infection to other birds, it usually takes many months or even years before the disease shows.
The babies are usually sold at an age when symptoms still have not revealed themselves.
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Social and behavioral problems in baby parrots
If young parrots are sold while they are still not able to feed themselves, it can be assumed that social behavioural problems will develop.
There are indications that these birds will not be able to pair normally and are less if not entirely unsuitable for breeding with.
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Man as a partner abnormal
In several bird species, the concept of imprinting is known. During the imprinting phase young animals view the person who rears them as conspecific.
It may mean that as the bird matures it will not recognized conspecifics as conspecifics, but focuses entirely on the man as a counterpart.
If such birds become sexually active, the bird will focus on the man as a partner.
Young pink cockatoos that were raised by Inca cockatoos subsequently revealed that there was sexual
imprinting during this phase, the pink cockatoo would try to engage with the Inca cockatoos and not his own kind.
This phenomenon is also found in other parrots. The most dramatic example is the situation of the Moluccan cockatoo.
The state of Moluccan cockatoos in Indonesia is very bad, there are many more Moluccan cockatoos in captivity than in nature.
Captive breeding couples get very little young. Most of these young are then hand reared and sold as a companion bird.
These beautiful, attractive and valuable birds are mainly impulsive purchases from dealers and pet shops by owners who have no expertise.
The end result is that most of these large cockatoos have behavioural problems such as screaming behaviour, picking behaviour, biting and self-mutilation.
In addition, owners only find out later on that these cockatoos produce an extreme amount of dust and can show extremely destructive behaviour.
These behavioural problems are one of the major reasons that an owner sells the parrot again or offers it to a sanctuary for parrots.
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Goal: baby parrots are raised by their parents
The goal should be that young parrots are raised by parents and not to be sold before the birds can eat completely independent.
A young parrot should only be able to be purchased from a breeder and not through a dealer, wholesale buyer or pet shop.
Associations and bird unions should refuse to participate in the trafficking of baby parrots.
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Lifetime buyer responsibility
Anyone who wants to buy a parrot should ask themselves whether it is a sensible choice to buy a parrot considering the lifetime responsibility for the welfare and health of the bird.
It is sad that thousands of parrots fall through the cracks because the owner did not realize what it's like to own a parrot and what kind of specific expertise is
necessary to properly keep one.
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